Tuesday, September 22, 2009

The annual TOCICO conference is in Japan this year and it's proving to be a very big deal. If you are a Theory of Constraints consultant, practitioner, professor, software provider, or just interested in learning more -- you should not miss this event.

Let me tell you why.

First of all, even though it's in Japan, it will cost about the same as attending last years conference in Las Vegas. Room rates are actually lower than Vegas – including breakfast. Airfares from the US are around $800. So the cost is affordable.

Second, there will be not one, but FOUR Living legends presenting!

Dr. Eliyahu M Goldratt is once again kindly donating his time to the TOCICO for a two day upgrade for members. Dr. Eli Goldratt will also close the conference with his provocative thoughts on the future. The opening keynote will be by the Director General of the largest of the government agencies in Japan - the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transportation and Tourism. The MLIT director general will talk about TOC acceptance and a remarkable success case and future on-going Kaizen efforts using CCPM. This approach has created a win-win-win public works management transformation that is good for the taxpayer, good for companies and good for the government. The impact of TOC on the country of Japan is so significant that immediately following the TOCICO conference there will be a MLIT conference in the same hotel. The TOCICO is a major sponsor for this conference and has arranged so that you can attend this half day conference at no additional charge - 5 days of conference for the price of 4! Plan on staying through November 20.

At that MLIT conference, we are honored this year to be joined by one of the last living students of Dr. TaiichiOhno. Mr. Ohnishi, is currently Chairman of Chubu Quality Association. This is the association that annually awards the highly coveted Deming award in Japan. He was the executive managing director Toyota. Mr. Ohnishi will be presenting "Lessons from Dr. Ohno, father of Toyota Production Systems"

Mr. SuehiroNakamura, past executive vice president of Sony and a direct student of the two Sony founders, Mr. Akio Morita and Mr. MasaruIbuka has agreed to present "Lesson learned from two founders Sony, Akio Morita, MasaruIbuka --Total Value Stream Innovation to make win-win-win holistic supply chain management". He will show us how he managed holistic supply chain management in Europe and Thailand with was amazing results including having only 7 days of inventory - not only within Sony but including all retail stores including small shop) bring win-win-win to whole supply chain which he calls "value stream". You can also visit the Sony museum!

Airfares are at the lowest level in years. When you check, you will discover that you can get a round trip to Tokyo for under $900. The hotel room cost is lower than the cost at the 2009 TOCICO International Conference in Las Vegas. The conference fee is the same as 2009. Even in this tough economic time, this is a trip that will payback quickly. Can your company afford to miss this opportunity?

And my favorite part of these conferences is networking with all my TOC friends and meeting new ones. If you decide to go, please let me know so we can meet up!

Brad: “There are tons of books and articles written about leadership and managing people, yet it remains the number one problem for most organizations. Is TOC’s solution necessary?”

Dr. Lisa: “Yes. Managing organizations conventionally leads to all kinds of negative side effects that TOC simply eliminates. But there are a lot of other good tools and techniques that can help, too, especially when the leader is getting re-engaged with managing people.”

Brad: “At my recent Vistage Retreat, I facilitated my group through an evaluation of “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team”. As you know, the book by that name, written by Patrick Lencioni, has been very popular, and there is a companion workshop that a team can go through. The Five Dysfunctions are, progressively:1. Absence of Trust2. Fear of Conflict3. Lack of Commitment4. Avoidance of Accountability5. Inattention to ResultsWe thought this model was helpful, and the team assessment was particularly good.”

Dr. Lisa: “That’s a good example. In TOC, we would call that ‘agreeing on the problem’. That team assessment is not threatening. And it can tell you what your team feels are the critical issues to address. But the exercises in the workbook are not sufficient to really solve the structural problems. Fine, have the management team take the team assessment, and have the leader lead a discussion of where the team is, but then the leader needs to dig in and change the policies, procedures, and measures that drive behavior.”

Brad: “Well said. I like that because all too often, leaders jump to a solution without really understanding, deeply, the problem they are trying to solve. Having the management team better understand their problem is the first step to buy-in.”

If you would like your management team to the take a complimentary “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team” team assessment, contact Brad Stillahn for the survey. Once all of the confidential surveys are returned to Brad, you will receive the team summary.

Dr. Lisa: “That’s true. In almost all of our client companies, when we started working with them, the management team was dysfunctional. And a dysfunctional management team will inhibit or block almost every kind of improvement. It’s a problem that needs to be addressed.”

Brad: “What’s the way out? Is there a solution?”

Dr. Lisa: “Dr. Goldratt suggests that when the policies, procedures, and measures that drive behavior aren’t appropriate—and they never are when a company is managed conventionally—then people are captured in conflicts for which there is no good solution. For example, you see this with managers of different organizational silos having different goals and measures. So, production is almost always at odds with sales. The organization ends up continually renegotiating unhappy compromises.”

Brad: “Of course, TOC is holistic. One of the first steps for improvement is to change the measures. There are operational measures that help guide silos to do what is good for the company as a whole. Anyone that has read The Goal was introduced to them, but rarely has anyone implemented them. Next, we align the organization with the company’s strategy and tactics. Then the silos are not at odds with each other.”

Dr. Lisa: “TOC also has the Thinking Processes for dealing with all kinds of issues, including thorny issues between people. The ‘Management Skills’ were developed just for that. There are five Management Skills workshops dealing with different topics:1. Day-to-Day Conflicts,2. Half-Baked Solutions,3. Chronic Conflicts,4. The Lieutenant’s Dilemma (about whether to delegate or just do it yourself), and5. Reaching an Ambitious Target.I’d recommend these to the leader of any management team. Developing skills for dealing with these issues will go a long way to reducing conflict, and improving communication.”

Friday, September 4, 2009

Some of the best self learning materials for Theory of Constraints are in video format. The problem has always been that they are expensive. The Goal video DVD (movie version of The Goal book by EliyahuGoldratt) is $895 and the 8 CD set of the Self Learning Program is $999.

But for the month of September you can get both of those and a whole lot more of Goldratt's genius for only $499. Here what you will have access to:

Videos:

The Goal movie on DVD (sells for $895)

Necessary & Sufficient Series (10 CD set sells for $149)

Goldratt Explains is a set of videos excerpts of past and/or unreleased conference presentations, where Dr. Eli Goldratt shares his analysis and developments on specific topics.

TOCICO Conferences (sell for $249 for each conference and you get ALL of them)

Brad: “Joe is that problem personality you have in your organization. Joe’s just a nickname. It could be anyone, man or woman, exempt or non-exempt employee. People have to put up with Joe, have confrontations with Joe, avoid Joe, hope that the company leader will deal with Joe, etc.”

Dr. Lisa: “Sounds toxic. Why put up with that poison in the organization?”

Brad: “There’s generally a good reason. The person has special skills, or has built dependency in the organization around his or her silo, or has choked off information flow so no one else knows what’s going on. So, there is a risk and/or cost with taking action. We business owners can tell ourselves scary stories about what could go wrong if we try to deal with it, so we generally avoid dealing with it.”

Dr. Lisa: “Yeah, and if you don’t have a plan in place, and/or his or her replacement lined up, there is a real likelihood of things going wrong. The logic is clear. Still, it can’t be good for the morale of the organization to be tiptoeing around Joe.”

Brad: “Action is required. Occasionally, Joe has to go. But not always, it depends on the leader of the organization. Managing people is ultimately the leader’s responsibility. Most of the time, in small businesses, the leader is not good at or doesn’t know how to manage people. It’s not that they aren’t capable, they just don’t know how. They are very frustrated about it, too. They need help.”